'''Internet Relay Chat (IRC)''' provides a way of communicating in real time with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. IRC is very similar to text messaging, but designed around communicating with large groups of users instead of one-on-one.<sup>[http://www.irchelp.org/ [ref]]</sup>

+

'''Internet Relay Chat (IRC)''' provides a way of communicating in real time with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. IRC is very similar to text messaging, but designed around communicating with large groups of users instead of one-on-one.<sup>[http://www.irchelp.org/ <nowiki>[ref]</nowiki>]</sup>

Some IRC clients for Linux, Mac, and Windows include:

Some IRC clients for Linux, Mac, and Windows include:

Revision as of 01:26, 28 June 2013

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) provides a way of communicating in real time with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. IRC is very similar to text messaging, but designed around communicating with large groups of users instead of one-on-one.[ref]

Contents

Installing an IRC client

All of the aforementioned IRC clients can be installed using your package manager.

e.g. in Debian, type: sudo apt-get install xchat

Those IRC clients are also installed on the LUG servers. You can access the servers remotely via SSH.

Using an IRC client

To join the #lug channel on the irc.gimp.org (aka GIMPNet) network, follow the steps below for your corresponding IRC client:

xchat

start xchat, select GimpNet, then click connect

wait for the connection to complete (this may take up to 15 seconds), then join #lug

You may now chat with others in the channel.

irssi

start irssi in a terminal window: irssi

connect to a network: /connect irc.gimp.org

wait for the MOTD (this may take up to 15 seconds)

join a channel: /join #lug

You may now chat with others in the channel.

To leave the current channel, type: /leave

To leave all channels and quit, type: /quit

weechat

start weechat in a terminal window: weechat-curses

connect to a network: /connect irc.gimp.org

wait for the MOTD (this may take up to 15 seconds)

join a channel: /join #lug

You may now chat with others in the channel.

To leave the current channel, type: /buffer close

To leave all channels and quit, type: /quit

Persistent IRC

Keep your IRC session alive for long periods of time by running your IRC client inside a persistent shell such as screen or tmux.

In the following example, we will use the LUG server as our always-on server, screen as our persistent shell, and weechat-curses as our IRC client.

ssh into the LUG server: ssh user@linux.ucla.edu

start a persistent shell: screen

start your IRC client: weechat-curses

connect to a server and join a channel

detach from the screen session by pressing ctrl+a then d

re-attach to the screen session by typing: screen -r

repeat steps 5 and 6 as needed. Have a lot of fun!

Other channels

Like HTTP, IRC is an open protocol, thus there are many independently operated IRC networks. Nearly every open source project has its own channel(s) for help or development talk. Have a question about GNOME? Head over to the #gnome channel on irc.gimp.org. Have a question about Linux? Head over to #linux on irc.freenode.net. We cannot possibly list every channel and network, but here is a list of IRC search engines: